« Pedantry | Main | More zombie laws and litigation strategy »
Saturday, June 25, 2022
First Amendment Roe-ism? (Updated)
Gerard asks a good question. I discussed a similar question after the draft leaked. Let me try another pass.
Lochner is more than an unenumerated right. The case also functions as shorthand for using the Constitution to protect economic activities against state regulation. That effort continues with recent efforts (some successful) to use, for example, free speech to hamper economic regulation--hence so-called "First Amendment Lochnerism." Can students understand that concept and what it entails if they have not learned Lochner?
Two more thoughts. 1) Lochner is important because the conservative desire to revive it affects doctrines such as the Commerce Clause and federalism; the "Broccoli hypothetical" in the ACA case was about importing Lochnerian limitatons into the Commerce Clause. 2) Although both involve unenumerated rights/substantive due process,they reflect different forms--one about economics and business and one about private personhood; there may be value in covering both.
Posted by Howard Wasserman on June 25, 2022 at 02:58 PM in Howard Wasserman, Teaching Law | Permalink
Comments
The comments to this entry are closed.